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Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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“Squeaker” McCarthy

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I was promised a recession.

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Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Eclipse Open Thread!

Eclipse Open Thread!

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I saw it! I saw it! The eclipse started about 10 minutes ago in my area, will peak just before 3 PM and be over shortly after 4 PM. We have a lot of fat, puffy white clouds, which I thought were going to ruin it — and still might.

But I went out into my shady yard, made my way to the one sunny spot, put on my eclipse glasses, and behold! The dragon took a wee nibble out of the sun!

It’s still hot and bright as fuck. And I stepped in dog shit on the way back in. But a magical experience nonetheless, and I’m looking forward to seeing the 80% or so occlusion at peak, if the clouds cooperate!

Feel free to share eclipse chatter here.

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  2. 2.

    A Ghost to Most

    Btw, a piece of copy paper with a pinhole, and another on the ground, is working great.

    Almost half way here.

  4. 4.

    efgoldman

    I stepped in dog shit on the way back in.

    Somebody could sell that as “enhancing the eclipse experience” or some such

  5. 5.

    Major Major Major Major

    @TenguPhule: Yes, you poor dear, living in Hawaii.

    It just finished here about 20 minutes ago. 75%. Light cloud cover, with gaps. I have glasses so I got to see it. It was cool! A little dim, a little chilly. The coolest part for me is always how the shadows cast by the gaps between leaves become long and thin.

  7. 7.

    Walker

    I am sitting here with friends in Maryville TN. We are set to get 1.5 minutes totality at 2:35. We could more totality south, but the sky is completely clear so traffic is a madhouse. We are staying in place.

  8. 8.

    NoraLenderbee

    My boss cut the staff meeting short and we went out to the parking lot. The crescent-shaped light between the leaf shadows were really cool. It got a bit darker and cooler. A coworker told us her dream in which our boss got rid of his dog and cats and bought a pet goat.

  12. 12.

    MazeDancer

    First Totality in Oregon on TV was wonderful. Went dark, people cheered. Lasted only a minute, it seemed.

    If, Goddess or Apollo willing, there is an Earth in 2024, and, knock wood, I’m still here, looked like so much fun even on TV, will definitely find some 100% nearby in North East.

    Looking forward to eyewitness reports when people get back to post.

  13. 13.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    It was foggy right up until the Eclipse was at it’s peak. The think I noticed was if you looked at the sun reflected off a car fender it looked normal but threw the glasses there was the moon.

  14. 14.

    Olivia

    Driving out of South Dakota into Minnesota in heavy rain and dark clouds. I think we won’t see any of it. The kids are disappointed but are keeping their spirits up by picking on, shrieking and hitting each other.

  15. 15.

    Cacti

    Did not have any vacation time left to drive down to the Oregon coast to see the total eclipse. We got a 91% eclipse up here in western WA.

  16. 16.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    Got NASA TV on while I wait. Starting to darken a bit outside.

  22. 22.

    scav

    Pinhole box success here — even took some blurryish photos of same in BillinGlendaleCA’s name, so lowest bar of photography definitely established. Cows did utterly nothing unusual.

  23. 23.

    Brendan in NC

    Getting ready for it in Charlotte, NC…we will get peak eclipse (97.5%) in 53 minutes!!! – Kinda hard to see from or office window – so I might venture out into the heat…

  26. 26.

    realbtl

    89% here in NW Montana, got some decent pix through my pinhole box. Totally silent from 15 min before peak. About 5 min after peak the geese down on the lake started up. All in all quite cool.

  28. 28.

    lamh36

    Unfortunately i’m at work in the dungeons that is the laboratory so no windows, mean no esclipse??

    but since this still counts as open thread, anyone have an recommendation for the BEST place for reasonably priced Italian in the D.C. area? Trying to figure out where we should eat while in DC (Sat evening, all day Sun/Mon). One of the days we are there (Sun) is my youngest sisters birthday and she mentioned Italian!

    So all my recommendations welcome for any good place for Italian and other good places to eat

  29. 29.

    Ohio Mom

    @Olivia: Hah! Sounds like a an awful lot like the car trips of my childhood. Except there weren’t aren’t seatbelts back then so we could throw ourselves over the seat into the back of the station wagon and back over again. Have you gotten to the “I’ll leave you here and you can walk home” part yet? Ah, memories!

    Right now I am sitting in the driveway, alternately playing with my phone and donning my glasses to look up. The sun is about a third covered at the moment. It will be at its peak 91% in about 50 minutes.

    Shortly after that, I have to get in the car to pick Ohio Son up. Totally enjoying myself right now.

  31. 31.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    The eclipse has started where I live. “Only” an 80% partial, but still cool. It will reach 80% around 2:33. I have glasses and it’s amazing what you can see with them. Right now it looks like the sun has a small bite out of it. My only regret was not making filters for my binoculars

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    @A Ghost to Most: How does that worK? I just got 2 pieces of paper and made a pinhole in one of them and put the other on the ground – nothing. What am I doing wrong?

  38. 38.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @WaterGirl:
    Can’t you see the eclipse on your paper through the pinhole? For a crisper image I used aluminum foil to poke the pinhole through. It looks pretty good too. Nothing compared to using glasses though.

  39. 39.

    Lapassionara

    I have a good view in my own backyard, and the sun looks like a new moon in shape just now. Way cool. Still a few minutes to totality. Way cool!

  40. 40.

    Caphilldcne

    Decided to drive down to Sweetwater TN. Stopped at Luray Caverns which I’ve never seen, the overnight with 5 am. They have a rocking Band and lovely street festival and I’m having a fine time. Totality in 35 minutes or so. It’s a pretty big bite already.

  43. 43.

    schrodingers_cat

    @lamh36: Do you like tapas? Jaleo is pretty good. Dupont Circle has many good restaurants, also many good restaurants at walking distance from the Navy Memorial/Archives metro station. Eastern Market near Capitol Hill is another place you should check out. Market Lunch at the Eastern Market has good home made root beer and crab cakes.
    ETA: Also, check out M street in Georgetown.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    @Lapassionara: That’s my situation, although some pesky clouds keep getting in the way.
    My son went to Brasstown Bald to view totality. I had a meeting this morning, so even if I wanted, it would not be possible.

  49. 49.

    mainmata

    Yep, got my special specs on and the sun seems about 1/3rd chomped. Reminds me of when I was living on Java in 1982 and the government ordered everyone in the country to stay indoors during the total solar eclipse there that year (120 million people back then). They made a nonsense about it being bad luck to be out there but they were mainly trying to make sure people didn’t blind themselves. I lived in the city of Bandung (population 3 million then). I went outside and everything was utterly silent, including the animals and birds. It was if a neutron bomb had gone off and the population all disappeared and everything became deep twilight since we were right under the eclipse path. I never actually saw it directly since we didn’t have the special sun specs we have now. That’s why I have been looking forward to it now (even though in MD it won’t be a perfect eclipse).

  52. 52.

    LAO

    So, some random guy has a pair of eclipse glasses outside of my office building and he’s letting people use them. It was cool, I’m glad I got the opportunity to see it live, even if though its only the start here in NYC.

  54. 54.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @WaterGirl:
    I think the safety pin should have been fine. As long as it was a small hole, you should be good. Try positioning the paper you’re projecting onto in your shadow. That should enhance the contrast.

  55. 55.

    Fair Economist

    Just saw totallity in Salem OR. Spectacular if a little less so than I expected. My cell camera is not good for eclipse work. You can see the backside of the moon in totallity and it’s beautiful but the camera couldn’t get that at all. No screaming, people cheered when the corona appeared.

  56. 56.

    Arrieve

    90 seconds of totality here in central Oregon. 2 amazing diamond rings before and after totality. The corona mostly white with flashes of red and blue. Now they’ve passed out Corona beers and we’re waiting for the last bit–Fourth contact. Totally, totally worth it

  58. 58.

    Laura

    It was Hella Awesome in Sacramento. The Cresent tree leaf patterns were beautiful!
    SCIENCE!!

  59. 59.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Me too! I just wish I would have made some filters for my binoculars! That would have cool. Wonder if I could have seen some sunspots? Oh well.

    Still not dark yet

  60. 60.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @WaterGirl: You need to work with the distance of the pinhole to the target paper. It will go in and out of focus with distance. Start with the pinhole paper directly over the target paper and move it away and toward until you see something and focus it.

  61. 61.

    Mike in NC

    No eclipse to see here: it was very cloudy all morning (providing some relief from the normal August heat and humidity) and now we’re getting solid cloudcover, torrential rain, and thunderclaps. NBC had dispatched meteorologist Al Roker and a crew of clowns to Charleston for the hyped-to-the-heavens event. Not sure if it’s any different down there.

  62. 62.

    condorcet runner-up

    Very cloudy in Chicago but luckily they parted briefly enough to catch a decent glimpse with my (hopefully!) approved viewing glasses.

  65. 65.

    CZanne

    In the mid 90% band here, and we’re just past maximum nibblage. I’ve got a couple of pinhole camera shots of the crescent and the leaves on the trees are still making their interesting patterns. I also chopped another of the privets down while waiting. It’s a Yale blue, clear sky today, so excellent viewing without driving up to Wyoming. This is my second significant partial (I was in the 90+ path for 91, too).

    I have a more or less hate-hate relationship with the sun, so I’d be perfectly content if this was the normal state of affairs. Alas, the celestial wolves cannot use the sun as their chew toy often. It seems to cause heartburn.

    Spouse, otoh, is more than done with all this eclipse stuff. His office mates have gotten a wee bit excessive, apparently.

  70. 70.

    Eural Joiner

    Our local neighborhood park here in southeast Columbia (which never has very many users at any one time) is packed and looks like a fair grounds – food trucks, a misting pole and hundreds of people with tents and telescopes and kids and dogs all bouncing around. Very entertaining! My wife and I wandered around with our dog and then went back home where (aside from the odd cloud or two) we’ve got a great view from our back yard :)

  71. 71.

    Elizabelle

    You can take any pic you like of ppl looking thru Eclipse glasses. They can’t see you. Lol. About 15 mins to totality. Dimming here.

  73. 73.

    Jeanne

    @lamh36: Osteria Al Volo in Adams Morgan! The decor/ambience has all the charm of a 1980s strip mall, but the food is amazing and the price is right.

  74. 74.

    JPL

    @Laura: The bark on my pines appeared to be popping. I tried to get a picture but I’m not Bill. lol
    Just turned on a light.

  76. 76.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    I’m just glad that, fingers crossed, the weather has cooperated so far for the most part. Mostly sunny with some clouds. Not usually the case in NE Ohio.

  77. 77.

    Amir Khalid

    Eclipse? What eclipse? The sky here got dark at sunset, and the experts say it’s going to stay dark till morning.

  78. 78.

    Mnemosyne

    I have camera-minded coworkers, so they came up with some really cool pinhole cameras. Plus I remembered to buy glasses two weeks ago, and I got eclipse donuts (aka chocolate-glazed) from Kristy Kreme on the way to work today, so we were all set!

    ETA: In So Cal we got about 65 percent coverage, so there were some cool images from the pinhole camera.

  80. 80.

    Redshift

    Got some good views with my eclipse glasses here in NoVa! Also took some colander crescent shadows photos. I’m hoping as it gets near max (2:40) I’ll be able to get an actual photo through the glasses.

  81. 81.

    WaterGirl

    4 minutes to peak at 93% and the light level is spooky – like when the sky has a yellow tint or just looks odd before a tornado or when a big storm is brewing. I like storms, so I’m good with this.

    Funny, though, now at 2 minutes to peak it appears to be getting brighter already.

    edit: maybe a cloud lifted?

  89. 89.

    Steve in the ATL

    @JPL: quiet here now too, except for the hum of the A/C unit. Clouds are out of the way but it’s clearly darker now. This is weird.

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    No reports so far of Moonmen coming out from their underground complexes to stare at the Earth.

  91. 91.

    A Ghost to Most

    @WaterGirl: Seriously.
    That’s all we used, and got a clear image.

    Now to see if any of the crescent shadow pics turned out. They were excellent.

  92. 92.

    Lapassionara

    Totality totally rocked. Over way too soon. I see now why people go out of their way to get the longest totality possible. Also, even just a sliver of the sun brings back almost normal daylight.

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    @JPL: 7 minutes past peak and the birds are chirping again and I can hear the cicadas doing their thing again. It’s distinctly brighter already.

  96. 96.

    Anne Laurie

    Guy running against Paul ‘Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver’ Ryan:

  97. 97.

    Insane Clown POTUS

    I watched the NASA livestream, as it was more exciting than live. I did see some nice crescent images on the ground through the trees and an almost-twilight feeling. I really need to get myself to a total eclipse sometime. I went to Bali to watch the 2012 transit of Venus, which was amazing.

  98. 98.

    A Ghost to Most

    @WaterGirl: you need to find the focus point by moving the pinhole paper up or down. Took me about 5 seconds to find the focus point.

  101. 101.

    RSR

    Pinhole cereal box here in Philly. Working well, but clouds are thickening just prior to our max at 2:44 EDT.

  104. 104.

    Mart

    Just had a couple minutes of totality on the back porch. Glad I did not have to travel, not on my bucket list of things I need to see again. Was a cool thing to me, not awesome. Neighborhood was extremely quiet. None of the dogs or deer seemed to care. Did not see any birds. All the landscapers were watching the show so no damn lawnmower noise. No cars.

  105. 105.

    bystander

    So, what does it say about the state of the nation that we are so absorbed by a natural phenomenon that has happened before and will happen again 7 years? (I don’t want Tom L. shaming my reading retention again.)

  106. 106.

    randy khan

    I’m in Cape May, New Jersey, where we are having some clouds. But the good news is that eclipse glasses don’t care about clouds, and since we’re not getting totality, I’ll pretty much see what I would have seen anyway. 12 minutes to max, so time to go back outside and see it.

  107. 107.

    Betty Cracker

    It’s definitely getting darker! Hens haven’t gone to roost yet, but I would not put it past them.

  108. 108.

    hegehog the occasional commenter

    Bunch of us from my office went out to the deck and watched. We had the solar eclipse glasses; saw lots of people with the pinhole cameras (either two pieces of paper or a paper box). Even at only 92% it was gorgeous. mr. h got to Lusk, Wyoming and set up with about 80 or so other people.

  109. 109.

    Ohio Mom

    Four minutes since max of 91%. The world looks like my phone screen on the night setting — a little too dim.

    Watching the moon move away is fun too.

  111. 111.

    Hungry Joe

    Only 57% totality in San Diego. Had I been unaware of the eclipse, and working outside, the only thing that would have clued me in would have been the drop in heat: The sun lost a lot of its power. Shirtless, I felt as if were standing outside on a nice sunny day in January. But the light was sharper, purer. Crescents cast onto the ground through leaves of the lemon tree.

  114. 114.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Steve in the ATL: @JPL:
    Even at 80% peak, it started to feel slightly cooler out. Neat.
    It never got dimmer than a cloud passing over the sun. I wonder how many people that had less than like 90% were disappointed it never got that dark out?

  116. 116.

    JPL

    The crickets are out and now it’s on the other side. It was a special event, although it was only 98%.

  117. 117.

    Redshift

    @bystander:

    So, what does it say about the state of the nation that we are so absorbed by a natural phenomenon that has happened before and will happen again 7 years?

    If say it says there may be hope for us.

  118. 118.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    Bunch of us from my office went out to the deck and watched. We had the solar eclipse glasses; saw lots of people with the pinhole cameras (either two pieces of paper or a paper box). Even at only 92% it was gorgeous. mr. h got to Lusk, Wyoming and set up with about 80 or so other people.

  121. 121.

    Steeplejack

    It’s around totality here in NoVA. it didn’t get really overcast, but there is a definite change in the quality of the sunlight. It feels more “diffuse.” My apartment got noticeably darker, because the sunlight coming in is weaker. The leaf shadows under the trees are kind of smudged. The big thing I’ve noticed is that the birds have gone quiet. I can see a party of sparrows outside doing their usual activities, but I’m not hearing the usual chirping.

    I think I got around 80-85% here.

  122. 122.

    Mart

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: It was fairly bright out just before totality, and the corona was too bright for the cell phone to take a picture (not good with buttons). You would not want to look at the sun without glasses even a fraction of a second before totality. Sucker is bright – it gives us moon-shadows. Noway close to the pitch black of night. More like after a bunch of Scotch while in Edinburgh at 11PM around the summer solstice.

  124. 124.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    Their product is to doughnuts what their name is to spelling.

    Tried ’em twice (figured maybe the first time was a fluke). Never again.

  126. 126.

    frosty fred

    80% totality here, I was hanging out laundry but the crescent shadows (which I remembered from the last time) disappointed. Accidentally noticed, though, that the holes in my beatup straw hat served as pinhole cameras so actually took a couple of phone photos of the image–I knew there was some reason I hadn’t replaced that thing (hat, not phone) when my daughter nagged me about it.

    There was definitely a different quality to the light, and the doves started cooing.

  129. 129.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    Also, the housecat woke up suddenly and started staring at me with arcane significance.

    Oh, wait, she does that every day around now. Afternoon snack time.

    And now it has gotten dark outside, although the sky toward the horizon is still blue. Kind of an odd effect.

    And as I write this it is starting to brighten up again. The end.

  130. 130.

    Betty Cracker

    The most notable thing to me about 80% totality is that I can stand in direct sunlight in the afternoon and not wilt like a salted slug. The cresent-shaped shadows are really cool too.

  131. 131.

    ellie

    It was at 92% totality here in Denver and it is sunny so I sat in a chair on the patio and watched it, with my eclipse glasses on. The people across the alley were whooping it up like they were watching a football game.

  132. 132.

    scav

    It would no doubt beconfusing to bystander as all his family members are natural phenomena — as is s/he — and they’re all around every day and none of them get excited by each other’s mere presence, let alone existence. Birthdays, smirthdays, happens like clockwork, every year, and let’s not even get into that whole vacuum of inanity on Dec 25th.

  133. 133.

    BruceFromOhio

    Lots of cardboard contraptions, colanders, white boards, selfies with projected crescents in the background, and checking of watches. Got the tree guys and the mail carrier to stop and take a look. No dog shit. Show is pretty much over now. We agreed to meet again in 2017.

  134. 134.

    randy khan

    @randy khan:

    It turns out heavy clouds do obscure the sun through the eclipse glasses, but there were gaps and it was pretty awesome. More awesome was sitting on the boardwalk and sharing the eclipse glasses with people we saw who didn’t have them.

    When the sun was in thin clouds, you actually could see the crescent well enough to take photos of it without a filter. I have a couple that I’ll share if they came out okay.

  135. 135.

    Ohio Mom

    Picked Ohio Son up. The school bus driver happily borrowed my glasses for a quick look but Ohio Son would have nothing of it: “Not my thing!”

    That’s autism for you, no desire to join in the crowd, does not get why other people care about whatever they care about, disinclined to even wonder about why other people care what they care about. Sigh. It really does limit a life.

  138. 138.

    Anne Laurie

    Just past the 63% peak here. We had a continuous thin scrim of cirrus clouds drifting past, but they cleared long enough to get some use out of the Spousal Unit’s pricey eclipse glasses. Although he was disappointed that the clouds spoiled the edges of the light silhouettes from his various colander / aluminium foil gizmos…

    The dogs don’t seem to have noticed anything, except that the most neurotic (Sydney) got nervous that both of us were staring at the sky, so he had to jump from lap to lap & stick his damp nose in our faces. And Rocky the meezer-cat made a break for freedom, bolting out the door, but I think that mostly his normal cussedness with a sidebar of wondering what we were up to (see: meezer genes).

  140. 140.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    Local park system handed out eclipse glasses at certain parks. People from all walks of life out. The woman in line in front of us was also named Adria! (Which is even rarer than a total solar eclipse.) We were able to see most of it until the clouds really rolled in here in the Columbus area (86%). Not too worried- we’ll be practically in the totality area in seven years! Maybe kiddo will follow direction better then- we kept catching her looking at the sun. Five year olds, man! Lol….

  142. 142.

    No One You Know

    Wow. Got a lucky shot of totality on the cell phone camera, and saw a tiny purple solar flare!

    The best were the crescent leaf shadows…and the very kind astronomers who lent their scopes to viewers. I could see sunspots.

    One of the college’s professors brought a friend from NASA who took questions from the audience gathered on the green

  144. 144.

    ET

    In DC I was afraid the weather was going to screw it up but it didn’t! I was surprised how bright everything was and we had something like 80% coverage.

  145. 145.

    mouse tolliver

    Total letdown in NoVa because we had a thunderstorm. It just looked overcast. I knew this would happen.

  146. 146.

    Mom Says I*m Handsome

    @Ohio Mom: I picked up my autistic son from his 8th grade class for an “appointment” and took him to a nearby park to view the eclipse. He was pretty morose about not being able to see it at school, so he was thrilled.

    I guess it’s true what they say, “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” I know my lil buddy will have challenges in life (especially in the realm you mention, as a social creature) but he’ll find his people. I hope your son does too.

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